Pulp International

vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news

SEI IT TO BELIEVE IT

When in doubt just keep murdering.

This poster for the Italian giallo flick Sei donne per l’assassino was painted by Marcello Colizzi (sometimes referred to as Mario Colizzi or Mauro Colizzi), and we’ll tell you right away it’s a very predictive poster. Bodies are piled up like cordwood because that’s exactly what happens in the film. We’ll get to that. We saw Colizzi recently in this collection of circus posters. His is the second one, the one with the giraffe. He was famed for his circus posters, but as you can see he was no slouch at movie promos. He also created memorable illustrations for 1955’s Bad Day at Black Rock and 1960’s The Unforgiven, as well as more obscure efforts such as Nebo zovyot, aka Battle Beyond the Sun, and Arrivano i titani, aka My Son, the Hero. We may see more from him later.

As we said, Sei donne per l’assassino, which is known in English as Blood and Black Lace, is a giallo. When a fashion model is killed by a masked figure it’s soon revealed that the dead woman kept a diary, seemingly filled with sensitive information about her friends, boyfriend, and co-workers. At first it looks like this little book is going to be the MacGuffin sought for the entire film, but it gets incinerated in a fireplace early on. That doesn’t seem to soothe the killer, though. Is crucial information from the diary now known? There’s only way to be sure—keep murdering. It’s serial killer logic. This maniac is pretty scary, swaddled in an Ace bandage headwrap, a black trenchcoat, and topped by a fedora. What’s the deal? Why all the killing? We won’t tell you.

Sei donne per l’assassino is a technical masterclass. Director Mario Bava and cinematographer Ubaldo Terzano flaunt their prowess at every turn. Each shot is painstakingly thought out, with framing, blocking, color, lighting and shadow, movement, and set dressing all making for a spectacular mise-en-scène that dazzles the eye. Even if you’re not a cinephile, you’ll know something special is happening, the same way you do when you first see Blade Runner, Days of Heaven, or The French Dispatch. Too bad all of this couldn’t have been expended on a slightly better film, but that’s okay, because Sei donne per l’assassino is a giallo, after all, and those are not known for being fully coherent. It’s incredibly watchable, and that’s what matters here.

The visuals will do a number on your brain. You’ll get the sneaking suspicion that symbology lurks everywhere on the screen. “Wait—is that symbolic?” Probably not—you’re probably overthinking it. “No wait—is that symbolic?” Don’t worry, though, you’ll understand it all by the end. Gialli sometimes have a character sum the whole twisty mystery up for you. Sei donne per l’assassino follows tradition, so it doesn’t leave you hanging even if it leaves its entire cast broken and bleeding. Within its genre, we’d call this a mandatory watch. And because of its luscious look it may even be mandatory for all movie lovers. It premiered in Italy today in 1964.

Italy, Sei donne per l'assassino, Blood and Black Lace, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Unforgiven, Nebo zovyot, Battle Beyond the sun, Arrivano i titani, My Son the Hero, Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, Thomas Reiner, Arianna Gorini, Mario Bava, Ubaldo Terzano, Marcello Colizzi, poster art, cinema, giallo, movie review

SLIT PERSONALITY

Say, “people afflicted by schizoaffective disorder.” They get really angry when you call them “schizoids.”

Under-appreciated Italian artist Mario Ferrari, aka Mafé, produced two posters for the Italian release of the U.S.-made Schizoid, both making use of scissors as a motif. These are great, especially the top one in which the female figure’s face is subtly warped. Is the movie warped too? It’s a giallo slasher flick with Klaus Kinski top billed, who it must be said was quite a man. He was accused by his daughter Pola of raping her, was described by his other daughter Nastassja as touching her in a sexual way, left female co-stars bruised and traumatized, and was clinically diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder—i.e. he was a psychopath. We usually don’t drag up the personal failings, vicious politics, or past crimes of actors or authors, but there’s a limit. And now you know.

Plotwise, Marianna Hill plays an advice columnist who attends group therapy, and is horrified when she learns that one of the members has been murdered. Hill has been getting weird, threatening letters, and intuits a possible connection. Since the police are useless (of course), she decides to engage with the letter writer/possible killer using her column—and you just know that’s going to turn out to be a bad decision. Hill has gotten involved with her group’s therapist Kinski, which naturally makes him a prime suspect. Nevertheless, there are other possibilities: her estranged husband, the doctor’s strange daughter, and her strange building superintendent. In typical giallo fashion there’s too much misdirection to deduce who the trench-coated killer is, but no worries—a late reveal will sort that out.

Schizoid has problems owing largely to the music and co-star Craig Wasson’s awful acting as Hill’s ex. In addition, Kinski was possibly cast specifically because he looks so creepy, in order for him to be a walking red herring. Okay, but he’s also miscast in the sense that he’s implausible in the role of a therapist. There’s simply nothing calming about him. Because he succeeded in some very tough, even epic, roles during his career you’d never think he couldn’t ace the part of a simple head doctor, but he doesn’t. Even so, Hill does well as a woman constantly unnerved by the men around her. She should be unnerved—they’re deplorable. After premiering in the U.S. in 1980 Schizoid opened in Italy today in 1981.

Italy, Schizoid, Klaus Kinski, Marianna Hill, Donna Wilkes, Craig Wasson, Christopher Lloyd, Mario Ferrari, Mafé, poster art, cinema, horror, giallo, movie review

EXIT PLAN

She'll probably make it out okay now.

This brown-haired femme fatale on the cover of Lewis Michael’s 1967 novel No Exit for a Blonde seems to have taken a hint from the title and secured an escape from whatever difficulty she faced. So very clever of her. The book is about a federal agent who goes on vacation in the unlikely locale of Tucson, Arizona, but runs into trouble involving drugs, murder, and slavery—you know, the usual Tucson stuff. The art here is by Italian artist Mario Ferrari, aka Mafé, and the book too was clearly designed in Italy, which the giallo style gives away.

Italy, Arizona, Tucson, Golden Fleece Books, Lewis Michael, Mario Ferrari, Mafé, cover art, literature, giallo

CHAMPAGNE WISHES

And dreams of all that is good and wonderful.

Happy New Year! In honor of the yearly calendar turnover here you see four lovely 1977 shots of Swedish actress Anita Strindberg, one of the queens of ’70s European cinema, as well as of our website. We’ve watched Strindberg locked down in prison in Women in Cellblock 7, seen her redefine the meaning of untamed bush in The African Deal, get slithered on by Florinda Bolkan in Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, be mysteriously tormented in Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, gush tears down her perfect cheekbones in Who Saw Her Die?, and get voodoo freaky in Tropic of Cancer. She made more than twenty films. We shall not be tiring of her soon.

These photos were published in a few places. We grabbed one of ours from the Italian magazine Playmen, and the other three from the Spanish mag Interviu. The text at top says merely “Anita’s toast,” as in to make a toast. There’s another we didn’t include that describes her as the Swedish Grace Kelly. Well, in our book she’s better than Kelly, because she’s wet and naked. We love how she starts with a Champagne glass, but by the end has transitioned to guzzling from the bottle. At that point she’s the other kind of toast. Well, the text suggests it, claiming she actually got drunk. We’d call that PR, but if she got loaded, good for her, because upending the bottle for the last dregs is exactly how we’ll do it tonight. Here’s to 2025.

Sweden, Spain, Italy, Women in Cellblock 7, Diario segreto da un carcere femminile, Contratto carnale, The African Deal, Woman in a Lizard's Skin, Una lucertola con la pelle di donna, Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, Who Saw Her Die?, Chi l’ha vista morire?, Al tropico del cancro, Tropic of Cancer, Playmen, Interviu, Anita Strindberg, giallo, nudity

SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN

Who'd want to kill a child? On occasion, virtually any parent on the planet, but in this case it's a violent psychopath.


This poster was painted by the great Enzo Nistri (the brush behind classic promos such as this and this) for the giallo flick Chi l’ha vista morire?, known in English as Who Saw Her Die? It stars former James Bond lead George Lazenby (looking unhealthily thin here because for reasons inexplicable he lost thirty-five pounds for the role) as an American artist in Venice whose young daughter goes missing. He first appeals to the (pro forma ineffectual) police, but the girl turns up floating dead in the Grand Canal.

This brings Lazenby’s estranged wife Anita Strindberg to town for the funeral, and soon they’re asking questions about a child murder from the previous year, which we the viewers have seen in the opening reel being committed by a woman clad and veiled in black. Lazenby and Strindberg go full sleuth in order to identify and locate this suspected killer, who meanwhile graduates to knocking off adults who might have clues. You may assume co-star and former Bond villain Adolfo Celi has something to do with all this, and he might, but this is a giallo. There’s no way to know who’s the killer until the final reveal.

The movie’s real star may be Venice, where residents once sauntered easily through lanes uncluttered by tour groups and AirBnB renters. You’ll see many hidden nooks of the city, beautifully shot by director Aldo Lado and cinematographer Franco Di Giacomo. This type of scenery will come courtesy of AI image generators in the approaching years. After all, why close down St. Mark’s Square when you can render it in a computer? Take heart, though—even a computer will never be able to generate Anita Strindberg. Chi l’ha vista morire? premiered in Italy today in 1972.
Italy, Venice, Chi l'ha vista morire?, Who Saw Her Die?, George Lazenby, Anita Strindberg, Adolfo Celi, Dominique Boschero, Enzo Nistri, poster art, cinema, giallo, movie review

RAPTOR MUSIC

You better watch her like a hawk.

We already shared a couple of nice images of Swiss actress Monica Strebel, but when we saw this great shot we had to bring her back. It was published in the Italian magazine IO. The accompanying text doesn’t explain why she has a bird, but it’s rather interesting anyway because it claims she wanted to play characters “psychologically suited to her personality, detached from the usual exclusively sexy artificial doll roles, real characters, [that] suffer.” Well, the suffering part came true—she mostly acted in giallo films, where enduring psychological torture is a prerequisite. In this photo, though, she looks like someone who does the torturing. It’s from 1969.

Switzerland, Italy, IO Magazine, Monica Strebel, giallo

A REAL WRIST TAKER

Doing her part to take a bite out of crime.

Above is the cover of Bagliori sulla città, written by Roy Parks for S.P.E.R.O.’s series I Gialli Polizieschi Americani, 1957. Parks was actually a writer named Mario Casacci, who also published novels as Bill Coleman, Mario Kasak, Rex Sheridan, and possibly others. He was also a noted screenwriter most famous for inventing, along with Alberto Ciambricco, the figure of Lieutenant Sheridan, who was a staple on Italian television through the 1960s and early 1970s, played by Ubaldo Lay. Casacci also participated on several soundtracks as a lyricist. The art here is from Averardo Ciriello, who we’ve featured before here and here on movie posters.

Italy, S.P.E.R.O., I Gialli Polizieschi Americani, Mario Casacci, Roy Parks, Bill Coleman, Mario Kasak, Rex Sheridan, Averardo Ciriello, Alberto Ciambricco, Ubaldo Lay, cover art, literature, giallo, cinema, television

DON’T STOP THE DANCE

My dream is actually to be a singer, so I interrupt this striptease to perform Verdi's aria, “Stride la vampa.”

This entry in Editrice Romana Periodici’s I Gialli dello Schedario FBI series is a late one. It was number 259 and came in 1980, which is surprsing because we didn’t realize ERP was still using painted cover art then. This one was the work of Mario Carìa, and Norman Forrest the author was actually—you guessed it—Renato Carocci, the guy who you could be forgiven for thinking wrote every Italian crime novel ever. You can check his output by clicking his keywords below, and you can see a small collection of FBI covers here. 

Italy, Editrice Romana Periodici, Norman Forrest, Mario Carìa, Renato Carocci, giallo, cover art, literature

ON THE MARK

Anonymous Italian cover artist hits the target.


Above: a pretty nice cover with a bullseye motif for Angeli neri di Brooklyn by Thomas Wright, from Editions ERP, entry fifty-four in their I Gialli dello Schedario series, published in 1959. Wright was a pseudonym often used by author Aldo Crudo, who wrote more than four hundred books beginning in 1957. The cover artist is unknown to us. We thought it could be Mario Ferrari. Alternate option, there’s a possible artist signature in red ink but we can’t read it and it doesn’t correspond to any we could find. It might be from the person who owned the book. We’ve run into book signers before. Anyway, we like the art. 

Italy, Editions ERP, Thomas Wright, Aldo Crudo, giallo, cover art, literature

TROPICO STORM

Strindberg goes to Haiti and develops Cancro sores.


These two posters for Al tropico del cancro, aka Tropic of Cancer, were painted by Italian master Renato Casaro, and really demonstrate his artistic range, as they’re stylistically different from the other poster he painted for the film. We have plenty of Casaro in the website, so if you want to see more just click his keywords below, or if you’re pressed for time, you can see what we think is his best work here and here. He isn’t the only person we want to highlight today. The movie stars Anita Strindberg, yet another luminous actress to come out of Sweden, and she plays a wife who travels to Haiti and is soon caught up in tropical sensuality, hallucinogenic drugs, and voodoo. It’s unabashed exploitation ranging from the sexual to the cultural, and Strindberg is the main reason it’s watchable, as you see below. Al tropico del cancro premiered in Italy today in 1972.

Italy, Sweden, Al tropico del cancro, Tropic of Cancer, Peacock's Place, Anita Strindberg, Anthony Steffen, Renato Casaro, voodoo, poster art, cinema, sexploitation, giallo
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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1916—Richard Harding Davis Dies

American journalist, playwright, and author Richard Harding Davis dies of a heart attack at home in Philadelphia. Not widely known now, Davis was one of the most important and influential war correspondents ever, establishing his reputation by reporting on the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and World War I, as well as his general travels to exotic lands.

1919—Zapata Is Killed

In Mexico, revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata is shot dead by government forces in the state of Morelos, after a carefully planned ambush. Following the killing, Zapata’s revolutionary movement and his Liberation Army of the South slowly fall apart, but his political influence lasts in Mexico to the present day.

1925—Great Gatsby Is Published

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is published in New York City by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Though Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s best known book today, it was not a success upon publication, and at the time of his death in 1940, Fitzgerald was mostly forgotten as a writer and considered himself to be a failure.

1968—Martin Luther King Buried

American clergyman and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., is buried five days after being shot dead on a Memphis, Tennessee motel balcony. April 7th had been declared a national day of mourning by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and King’s funeral on the 9th is attended by thousands of supporters, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

1953—Jomo Kenyatta Convicted

In Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced to seven years in prison by the nation’s British rulers for being a member of the Mau Mau Society, an anti-colonial movement. Kenyatta would a decade later become independent Kenya’s first prime minister, and still later its first president.

1974—Hank Aaron Becomes Home Run King

Major League Baseball player Hank Aaron hits his 715th career home run, surpassing Babe Ruth’s 39-year-old record. The record-breaking homer is hit off Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and with that swing Aaron puts an exclamation mark on a twenty-four year journey that had begun with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro League, and would end with his selection to Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

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BRAZIL UNDERGROUND

Edições de Ouro and Editora Tecnoprint published U.S. crime novels for the Brazilian market, with excellent reworked cover art to appeal to local sensibilities. We have a small collection worth seeing.

FLUENT IN VIOLENCE

Walter Popp cover art for Richard Powell's 1954 crime novel Say It with Bullets.

IN HOT WATER

There have been some serious injuries on pulp covers. This one is probably the most severe—at least in our imagination. It was painted for Stanley Morton's 1952 novel Yankee Trader.

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